Mr. President: When will ’somebody else’ build my business?
There was a lot of buzz over the weekend, stretching into today, about these remarks President Obama made during a campaign stop Friday in Roanoke, Va.:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
Well, that’s not so controversial, is it? I’ve had some success in my career in journalism, and I am in the habit of referring to the great teachers I had (in college and before), the great upbringing I got from my parents, and some favorable timing/circumstances along the way. Certainly, there are a lot of successful people who want to “give something back” and do so — to churches, their alma maters, to civic organizations …
Wait, what’s that? Obama wants to steer the conversation toward government? Well, I’m not exactly surprised.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.
OK, I mentioned teachers, too — although Obama does not differentiate between those in public schools or, like his own daughters’ teachers and his own college professors, those in private schools. (I’m a public-schools product myself.) And it has become routine for Obama to harp on the roads and bridges as if that’s necessarily something the federal government must or should be involved in.
But that wasn’t enough for Obama. As the saying goes, he went there:
If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Now, if you’re expecting me to slam Obama for that comment — and the idea that government’s role in the creation of the Internet means every online entrepreneur should get down on his knees and thank government, or gladly hand over whatever amount of her profits government thinks she owes it — you’re going to be disappointed today.
Nope, my question is: Where’s mine?
If “somebody else” is going around building these businesses for people, when do “they” make it to me? I’d love for “somebody else” come “make that happen” for me. I mean, a business doesn’t “get [started] on its own!”
So … when should I expect “somebody” to call and make the appointment for handing off this new business, Mr. President?
– By Kyle Wingfield
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383 comments Add your comment
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
July 16th, 2012
3:05 pm
Despite an easily distracted news media and a weekend for the story to cool off, questions about Mitt Romney’s tenure are driving the day again at the start of a new week, and it may only be getting worse for Romney.
mwuahahahahahahahaha
Just saying..
July 16th, 2012
3:06 pm
Tiberius – pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 16th, 2012-2:56 pm: “Just sayin’, in case you missed it, liberals and liberal thought and teachings have been dragging us down to their levels for over 80 years.”
Tb: Self proclaimed citizen of a mediocre country. That he blames somebody else for ruining.
You ARE a piece of work, bud.
Gotta go; getting someone else, of course, to pay for my Rx. Get you some Zantac while I’m there?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
July 16th, 2012
3:08 pm
Grow up, pay your own way and stop complaining. You are not oppressed, you are not over taxed, you are footsoilders for the aristocracy. Get over yourselves.
Bingo!
Chip
July 16th, 2012
3:08 pm
Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot.
Come on, people… this clown has never worked a day in his life at a real job in the real world. A 12-year old Girl Scout with a lemonade stand knows more about business than this moron… and yet the Kool-Aid drinking liberals will cover for him, time and again.
DawgDad
July 16th, 2012
3:08 pm
Just saying . . . WHERE did I say Government “is the problem”? Did I say that? NO! So please stop putting words in my [keyboard]. What I pointed out is what our Founders understood – Government is NOT inherently good and benevolent.
Government serves a purpose. Government can do things that are very difficult in the free market (provide for the common defense, for one). Ceding power to government inherently restricts freedom; we have a Constitution and political system to [hopefully] manage the power invested in our government.
Government can be an enabler and a delivery system, ideally serving the broad interests of the public. Government provides a structure to create and enforce the rule of law. Beyond that, it’s a danger to liberty and freedom. The bridge that is being crossed today, or perhaps already has been, is RELIANCE on government.
Government research did not create the Internet – American people created the Internet. Government played a role in enabling the development of the internet, yes, per the will of the people. But Obama stretches this reality to the leftist limit: his point, his real point, is business opportunity exists at the whim of Government, to be doled out by Government as the leaders see fit. THAT is his real point. Read his words again, carefully, and consider his actions. That is what he’s saying, and he’s VERY dangerous.
MiltonMan
July 16th, 2012
3:09 pm
“What are you gonna do when Obama is reelected ? Are all those people not “real” Americans either ?
Sounds like you are the one who isn’t very American.”
Remind us again about Obozo’s wife and her statement about she was never proud to be an American until her clown husband was the democratic nominee.
GT
July 16th, 2012
3:10 pm
Something happen in this country to make it wealthier than any other on earth. I do believe some parts of this country are pulling the load for the rest of it. If the south had won that war over 100 years ago they would be a English speaking Mexico, just look at them. You got some of the most impoverished, undereducated, diseased, overweight, criminal minded people in our universe living in the south, not to mention the politicians that represent them and their greased palms for doing nothing routine, not unlike a third world country.
If they had won that war the employment that comes south would have stayed north where America was and the workers in this region would be illegals trying to sneak over the Mason Dixon line for a job to feed their family. Only by the failure of the south have they succeeded, and burdened their fellow Americans with their continued failures. To insult this country by thinking especially in the south that you are not wealthy by the grace of God and the bounty of this country to me is clinically nuts on your part. It also explains a lot of the logic this area produces, in their accounting of themselves.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 16th, 2012
3:10 pm
“pay your own way and stop complaining. ”
We already DO pay our own way, East Lake Ira.
And yours as well.
Which gives us every right to complain.
Road Scholar
July 16th, 2012
3:13 pm
By “this moron” Chip, are you referring to yourself?
If Romney did stopped working/heading Bain in 1999, wouldn’t there be an office memo, directive, or board record of exactly what was to be done, not done, and by whom? Or do they just come and go with the wind?
GT
July 16th, 2012
3:19 pm
You know what I think they are going to discover. I think Romney just took the corruption he is credited for fixing at the Olympics and moved them off book and off shore using Bain as his vehicle, like Enron accounting with a third party. The bribes were now paid like business deal, thus the sudden change in how Bain did business. Good reason not to show his tax returns.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 16th, 2012
3:23 pm
“If Romney did stopped working/heading Bain in 1999, wouldn’t there be an office memo, directive, or board record of exactly what was to be done, not done, and by whom?”
And you KNOW there isn’t one – how – Road Scholar?
James Lee Adams
July 16th, 2012
3:24 pm
Obama needs to apologize-not to Romney about Bain-but to the American people for the sorry job he has done with our economy
Gimme Gimme Gimme
July 16th, 2012
3:27 pm
Using the Liberal logic crime is sponsored by the Government because criminals use roads to commit their crimes.
How out of touch can people be? It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
1961_Xer
July 16th, 2012
3:30 pm
Sometimes they have to drop out. Usually its a family issue. Baby etc.
But they just dont walk out the door and say. Well I choose to be poor. Obama and the government will take care of me. It doesn’t work that way.
Although in the delusional republican mind this is exactly how it happens.
It’s not delusional… its fact. People make choices, and don’t consider the consequences of those choices. Just because the person did not come out and say “I choose to be poor” does not mean that (s)he has not chosen. Look at your own example:
Sometimes they have to drop out. Usually its a family issue. Baby etc
The sex and resulting baby were CHOICES. Because they did not think about the consequences of of sex, of quitting to have the baby, etc, does not absolve them of the CHOICE that they made. What delusional Democrats do is absolve people of personal responsibility for their choices by giving them tax dollars. They reinforce the poor choice with a monetary reward. And YES, they do know that Obama and the Democrats will take care of them. They now have 50 years of example to show them that it is so.
And just because a “rich” person would handle that sex/baby differently does not absolve the poor person either. Just because the daddy of a rich girl will handle the poor choice of his son/daughter differently than a poor person does not absolve he poor person of their personal responsibility/choice.
And finally, the second gist of this column seems to be about taxes, and the liberals deriding conservatives for “whining” about taxes. Might I suggest that those who pay the most will whine the most? When a liberal sees a tax, he says “why not, I PERSONALLY WONT HAVE TO PAY IT”. Those who actually have to pay will yell the loudest. Just like Federal income taxes, those making below about $50k are not going to pay for Obamacare. They are going to get a subsidy. Those who actually pay for Healthcare without a subsidy and those who pay taxes are going to yell the most.
So if you are one of the folks that pay both federal/state income tax and property tax, you are going to yell a lot more than folks who pay NONE. A family of four making $50k in Georgia has about the same effective spending power as a family of 4 making $90k when considering taxes and tax credits. You can expect those making $90k to yell a lot louder about taxes than those making $50k, as nearly 25% of their income is taken in federal/state income taxes and property taxes. You can expect the $50k family to say “give me more” as they are already paying nothing, and getting tax credits and (with obamacare) health care subsidies.
ITS ALL BUSHS FAULT
July 16th, 2012
3:33 pm
Romney vote = vote agaisnt America………GOP … lemmes…
ITS ALL BUSHS FAULT
July 16th, 2012
3:35 pm
Herman Cain was more prepared than this Romney Clown.
Common Sense
July 16th, 2012
3:35 pm
“Never in history has government existed for governments sake. Never.”
The most ignorant statement of the day.
zebra
July 16th, 2012
3:37 pm
You can have my country club write-off when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.
Taxes are bad, regulation is bad, poor people are bad, corporations that answer to no one are good. This ain’t hard at all.
Gimme Gimme Gimme
July 16th, 2012
3:42 pm
Hard work is bad, Ownership is bad, Successful people are bad, Freeloaders that answer to no one are good. This ain’t hard at all.
GT
July 16th, 2012
3:42 pm
Gimme Gimme Gimme they actually do use that. It helps separate federal crime from state crime. You use a federal highway to take you from one state to the other in committing a crime, you have broken a federal law. Obviously the jail populations are more because of this or they wouldn’t have it. People have gone to jail that would not have in a state situation. Carrying woman across state lines for illicit purposes or carrying stolen items or drugs across state lines, or mail fraud using the US mail, wire or telephones. When we prosecute the imagination opens up to all the things that have been violated that this country has given the criminal, but not our business man, it is a solo act, Hercules didn’t need any of this to succeed.
Aquagirl
July 16th, 2012
3:46 pm
Somalia is begging for you hard-working entrepreneurs. Nobody here helped you, and you should be even more successful over there with an untapped market, what are y’all waiting for?
GT
July 16th, 2012
3:51 pm
Begging for them Aquagirl! Boat leaves tonight, tickets are free, let see how crowded it is!
Gimme Gimme Gimme
July 16th, 2012
3:51 pm
“Somalia is begging for you hard-working entrepreneurs. Nobody here helped you, and you should be even more successful over there with an untapped market, what are y’all waiting for?”
Does Google have a gibberish translator?
Road Scholar
July 16th, 2012
3:52 pm
Tib: It was a question, Bud! All companies, the military, and government have a chain of command. When someone goes”missing” for a period of time, those in charge reflect changes to the chain of command to others. It’s called internal communication. No one saw any smoke signals. The smoke from the chimney was not white. So when Romney allegedly handed off his leadership roll, how did they know he was gone and who was in charge???? I do not WHAT was done or When, but wouldn’t someone have an official record, esp with the SEC involved?
detritusUSA
July 16th, 2012
3:53 pm
From my experience there is a lot of truth in what the President said about small business. I know many people who inherited their small business from family, sometimes third and fourth generations are running the business. I’m talking about true small business employing 40-50 people.
Now all you grass cutters and yard men, maybe you built your business yourself. Don’t know, and wouldn’t care at all except that most of you are deal in the underground economy and benefit no one but yourself.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 16th, 2012
3:56 pm
Romney wasn’t “milling” Road. He was elsewhere.
And grown-ups don’t need memos to know what to do or who to talk with.
They just do it.
Really, if this is the best you’ve got on Romney, you (and the Liar-in-Chief) really have to step up your game.
Of course, you could always campaign on your record, but that wouldn’t go over too well, now would it?
curious
July 16th, 2012
4:00 pm
There seems to be a lot of bitter people here today.
Send the 50% that pay no taxes to Somalia. Don’t know who’ll be serving the fries, but maybe some of the business builders here can figure it out.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 16th, 2012
4:00 pm
Sorry.
Read: “MISSING”, not milling.
curious
July 16th, 2012
4:02 pm
Has the person in charge at Bain come forward or was it run by committee?
Jefferson
July 16th, 2012
4:05 pm
Please don’t act like you don’t know how well you have it and have had it made. Work is easy if you have the right tools.
jconservative
July 16th, 2012
4:07 pm
Strange timing for a column on this subject.
We are in the heat of a presidential campaign. Obama has just spent a week making the election all about Romney.
Maybe a column on the incompetence of the Romney campaign team would be more appropriate.
East Lake Ira
July 16th, 2012
4:07 pm
Common Sense
July 16th, 2012
3:52 pm
You assume too much. I more than pay my own way. If you specifically leave, no one will notice or care.
Common Sense
July 16th, 2012
4:12 pm
East Lake Ira,
Your delusions of grandeur are amazing. By your own logic you could not be paying your own way. For if you made enough money, you would NOT be paying enough in taxes.
And if you are not one of those that you are claiming need to pay more taxes, by default you are one that is consuming more in public resources than you contribute.
Either way, you lose.
md
July 16th, 2012
4:14 pm
“It all seems to boil down to the Cons crying because they don’t want to pay any more taxes even though they pay less now than they have in any time over the last 30 years.”
Never mind that that is true for everybody……wouldn’t want to get in the way of a good agenda.
Old Timer
July 16th, 2012
4:16 pm
Obama has a creative mind in his own mind–a symtom of previous pot engagements? Another 100+ days of this?
Gimme Gimme Gimme
July 16th, 2012
4:18 pm
Mr. President-
Could you send someone over to cut my lawn tomorrow. Could you make “someone else make it happen”.
Thanks
md
July 16th, 2012
4:24 pm
“You got some of the most impoverished, undereducated, diseased, overweight, criminal minded people in our universe living in the south, not to mention the politicians that represent them and their greased palms for doing nothing routine, not unlike a third world country. ”
When did Chicago move to the south?
I’ve been all over this great country of ours, and have yet to visit anywhere where the above does not exist………
Common Sense
July 16th, 2012
4:26 pm
“It all seems to boil down to the Cons crying because they don’t want to pay any more taxes even though they pay less now than they have in any time over the last 30 years.”
That statement would apply to everyone wouldn’t it?
Road Scholar
July 16th, 2012
4:27 pm
Tib: Not going to argue a question! I said most companies and organizations have an official record, esp if they are grown ups. So why was his name filed as the CEO with the SEC if it does not matter? Don’t worry…take your time..breathe deeply….I’m out of here!
md
July 16th, 2012
4:27 pm
“I know many people who inherited their small business from family, sometimes third and fourth generations are running the business. I’m talking about true small business employing 40-50 people.”
And??
Go start your own family business, and we promise we won’t say a thing when you pass it on to your kids…….and won’t say anything if you give them an allowance either as there are plenty of poor children that barely get to eat.
Gee people, envy runs deep today.
Get Real
July 16th, 2012
4:27 pm
It is hard to say as there is so much competition but this is arguably the most stupid thing Obama has said to date. He has absolutely no clue as to what makes our economy work and this is another in many deparate attempts to throw out his latest “let’s try this lunacy” and see if it sticks.
Only the most ardent Obama supporters in their Obama soaked Kool Aid brains can rationalize the defense of these statements. Everbody has help along the way but it to rack it all up to government so you need to pay more taxes is such an assanine quatum leap that it is truly laughable…total desparation
Michael H. Smith
July 16th, 2012
4:33 pm
The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Best fact check this statement, it is highly inaccurate. What we know today as the Internet -which began as ARPANET – was not created so companies could use it to make money from the enterprise of engaging in commerce.
ARPANET
Misconceptions of design goals
Common ARPANET lore posits that the computer network was designed to survive a nuclear attack. In A Brief History of the Internet, the Internet Society describes the coalescing of the technical ideas that produced the ARPANET:
It was from the RAND study that the false rumor started, claiming that the ARPANET was somehow related to building a network resistant to nuclear war. This was never true of the ARPANET, only the unrelated RAND study on secure voice considered nuclear war. However, the later work on Internetting did emphasize robustness and survivability, including the capability to withstand losses of large portions of the underlying networks.[5]
Although the ARPANET was designed to survive subordinate-network losses, the principal reason was that the switching nodes and network links were unreliable, even without any nuclear attacks. About the resource scarcity that spurred the creation of the ARPANET, Charles Herzfeld, ARPA Director (1965–1967), said:
The ARPANET was not started to create a Command and Control System that would survive a nuclear attack, as many now claim. To build such a system was, clearly, a major military need, but it was not ARPA’s mission to do this; in fact, we would have been severely criticized had we tried. Rather, the ARPANET came out of our frustration that there were only a limited number of large, powerful research computers in the country, and that many research investigators, who should have access to them, were geographically separated from them.[6]
Packet switching pioneer Paul Baran affirms this, explaining: “Bob Taylor had a couple of computer terminals speaking to different machines, and his idea was to have some way of having a terminal speak to any of them and have a network. That’s really the origin of the ARPANET. The method used to connect things together was an open issue for a time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
obumer needs to do some research before he misspeaks on the subject of the why the Internet was created. Many of us know when he is BS’ing on the hopes that no one call him out on his use of ignorance.
MarkV
July 16th, 2012
4:34 pm
What might be surprising, but what has become a new normal for Kyle and his sycophants on this blog, is to take perfectly reasonable words of the President and mock him and insult him.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 16th, 2012
4:34 pm
“So why was his name filed as the CEO with the SEC if it does not matter?”
Don’t know and don’t care, Road.
I don’t play small-ball like you Obama myrmidons do.
Hillbilly D
July 16th, 2012
4:34 pm
Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
I thought the internet (earliest version anyway) came about to aid communication, mainly within the defense department, but what do I know?
Ronnie Raygun
July 16th, 2012
4:37 pm
A conservative is what you get when mommy and daddy tell Jr. that he’s the most special person in the world, and they’re dumb enough to believe it into adulthood.
zebra
July 16th, 2012
4:38 pm
“Let me be clear: The bottom 50% of wage earners pay virtually NOTHING towards goverment.”
More wingnut ignorance. The 50% number you folks throw around includes all the children, retirees, housewives (like Frau Romney) etc in the country and does not include FICA.
When the Outsourcer’s kids were small, 6 out of 7 folks in his house did not pay taxes. Freeloaders!
carlosgvv
July 16th, 2012
4:44 pm
Kyle, Obama was speaking in a broad and general sense. He obviously didn’t mean the Govt. would come knocking at every door and handing out success.
This take on what Obama said shows both deception and desperation on your part. I know you can do better.
Michael H. Smith
July 16th, 2012
4:45 pm
Envy runs deep mostly with democrats and Marxist. Conservatives and Libertarians have little use for altruism or the hate for people who prosper and enjoy the wealth thereof from their own work efforts.
Go make a million dollars and I’ll be happy for you and yours with hopes government takes very little of it from you – far less than 35%!
Oh and no death tax on what you leave to yours.
Scooter
July 16th, 2012
4:45 pm
If someone starts a business that creates taxable income for multiple people, I think they have paid enough for the “privilege” of government services. Only a classless politicians would allege they were successful without paying for government providing infrastructure and emergency services. Granted, since cutting his teeth in Chicago, class has not been The Obama’s strong suit. Well, unless we’re talking about accentuating class divisions… now that’s something he specializes in.